Fast-track TAVI: establishing a new standard of care

Transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) has revolutionized the treatment of aortic stenosis and is currently the treatment of choice for degenerative aortic stenosis from 75 years of age. Despite its minimally invasive nature, for years, the length of stay after TAVI was approximately 1 week.1 Due to technological advancements and perioperative care, in recent years, there has been a progressive reduction in the length of stay after TAVI. Several factors have contributed to this trend, such as patient selection (preoperative planning and inclusion of patients of lower surgical risk), simplification of the procedure (use of local anesthesia, secondary radial access, smaller caliber catheters and vascular complications, standardization of implantation techniques with fewer conduction disorders) and optimization of peri- and postoperative care (accelerated circuits following after TAVI and outpatient monitoring). In an article published in REC: Interventional Cardiology, Pimienta González et al.2 present the results of the first 100 patients treated with TAVI in a noncardiac surgery center, with the implementation of an early discharge protocol since the beginning of the program. The patients’ mean age was 82 years and their surgical risk was low-to-intermediate (Society of Thoracic Surgeons score of 4.38%). A total of 97% of all procedures were performed via...